


Where You End and I Begin

by Ernzo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Gay Luke Skywalker, Get in loser we're going to Chandrila, Government Assigned Soulmates, It's unclear what she did in the foster home, Kind of arranged marriage themes, Learning Together, Leia is a secret fairy godmother, Loss of Virginity, Maybe Virgin Rey, Natural Disasters, Soulmates AU, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Virgin Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-23 03:05:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15596829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ernzo/pseuds/Ernzo
Summary: The day after Rey's 16th birthday, two things happen: She's told that she must leave her school and her foster home, she's aged out of the foster system and must make her own way.And, she learns the name of her soulmate, two years earlier than the law usually allows.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This little things started to worm into my brain, so I wrote it and now we are here. Part two is already partially written, and I don't think there will be super long wait times for these, because this is what is monopolizing my brain space at present.
> 
> A HUGE thank you to [voicedimplosives](https://archiveofourown.org/users/voicedimplosives/pseuds/voicedimplosives) for beta-ing this little thing for me! I've never used a beta before, and I am so, so thankful that she was willing to help me!

_ “He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.” _   
— Leo Tolstoy

 

++

 

It happened the day after Rey’s 16th birthday. 

A man, dressed in black, came to the door of her classroom, and the teacher indicated that Rey should follow him. 

She collected her books and followed, down the hallway into an empty classroom.

The man was tall, sleek, ominous. A government official, Rey surmised.

When the door closed behind her, he indicated that she should take a seat at one of the vacant desks.

“Jackson, Irene. Date of birth, April thirtieth 2525, correct?” He looked over the top of a manila file at her.

“Rey,” she corrected automatically and flushed as he rolled his eyes at her in a disinterested manner. “But, yes, that’s correct.” 

Her palms were hot and sweaty, her stomach full of butterflies that seemed like they were trying to crawl their way out. Was she in trouble?

“You passed all of your age sixteen exams,” he said casually, and Rey watched as his eyes scanned over the file.

“Okay…” she said hesitantly. She had taken them last week, with her birthday falling so close the to end of the school term, she had been required to take them early, with several other students with late birthdays.

“And you are officially aged out of the system. You will not be returning to school.”

Rey’s heart dropped. She  _ loved _ school. She hoped that she would be allowed to stay here, at least until the end of term, but she knew the rules.

The foster system cut kids loose at sixteen. Children who had families and money were allowed to continue their education until eighteen, after which they would be assigned a career and a soulmate and sent on their way into the world. Or what was left of it. But, if you were like Rey, and had no parents, the government stopped paying for you when you turned sixteen. If you were able to pay for yourself, you were welcome to continue. But if you weren’t…

Rey felt her breaths coming quicker, and she pinched her eyes shut in an effort not to panic.

“What happens?” Rey asked, her eyes still closed. “Where am I supposed to go?”

No school meant no lodging. She would not be allowed to remain at her foster home, either. She knew all of this. She knew all of these things, they were talked about by all of the adults and others at the foster home. But some small part of her hoped that it wasn’t all true. The cruelty wasn’t actually real.

“You will also be receiving your soulmate assignment,” he added, as a way to answer her question.

At this, Rey startled, her eyes opening. Soulmate?

Soulmates were not assigned until 18. That was the law.

“I thought I wouldn’t receive that assignment until I was eighteen,” Rey asked, her voice cracking lightly.

At this, the official cleared his throat. “Well, there are certain circumstances in which we reveal or assign earlier than the designated age.”

Rey’s brow furrowed. Circumstances? What circumstances?

“Am I in trouble?” Rey asked cautiously.

The official closed the folder and crossed his arms, a wry look on his face. “No, Ms. Jackson.”

He stepped forward and handed her the file. “Inside is the address and contact information for your soulmate. He’s been informed that you have turned sixteen and aged out, and I’m sure that he will be expecting you.”

Rey looked down at the folder, still in the official’s hand as he offered it to her. Taking a deep breath, she accepted the folder from him.

“What’s his name?” She asked, unable to stop herself.

The official looked at her for a long moment, and Rey couldn’t figure out the expression that he wore on his face.

“Ben Solo.”

 

++

 

Seventy-eight years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth. In 2463, after the strike, many died, many suffered.

After, there was rebirth. Chandrila, Coruscant and Jakku were on the opposite side of the planet from the impact event and sustained the least amount of damage. There were still crippling periods of darkness and bitter cold, but the government protected and helped its people.

After The Recovery, many had died, but a plan was put in place to help the population thrive. Every person, rich or poor, had blood drawn to locate a protein, long forgotten in the prior civilized environment, that indicated your soulmate. The process was regulated and males and females were paired off to help rebuild what was left of the population.

When Rey was born, her blood was drawn and entered into a database, set to find her match. If her soulmate was not born yet, it would continuously be cross checked with every new sample until a match was found.

That’s about all that Rey knew when it came to the soulmates program. It’s the extent of what they were taught in school, but many in the foster home thought wistfully of someone rich and powerful being their soulmate, taking them from poverty and food rations to a better life. Rey had had very little luck in her life, her parents had both died very early, forcing her into the foster program, where she lived with two dozen or so other children who were also orphans for one reason or another. It was a better group home than most, Rey knew this, they always had food and the beds were always warm, even when the electricity was rationed during peak hours. The foster homes were lower priority, so often the nights in the winter were cold, but there were always enough blankets for everyone. So, Rey doubted very much that her soulmate would be someone handsome and rich, who would sweep her off her feet and buy her expensive things.

But, here she sat, on a bus driving north from Jakku toward Chandrila, watching as the landscape slowly became greener, with only a small duffle that carried all of her worldly possessions. The manila file that she had been given sat open in her lap, and her eyes poured over the very scarce details of her soulmate that she had, desperate to find something that she had missed, something more.

On one side of the folder were her details. Where she was born, her parents’ names, basic information. His side held the same information, and she wondered if he was just as frustrated as she was at the lack of knowledge that they had been given about each other. It listed his birthday as November 21, 2522, making him two and a half years older than Rey. His occupation was also listed, as he was older than eighteen and had been assigned a career. It was listed as ‘statistics analyst’ but noted no company.

His mother was Leia Organa-Solo and father was Han. Rey wondered who they were and what they were like.  She couldn’t afford a computer or even a data pad, otherwise she would have tried searching for more information about them prior to leaving. Would they like her when they met her?

Would  _ he _ like her when he met her? He was her soulmate, Rey reasoned with herself, he had to. Right?

 

++

 

Chandrila was nothing like Rey had ever seen. Green and lush, with buildings and bustle everywhere the eye could see. Jakku had been harsh and dry, having sustained more damage in the impact than Chandrila or Coruscant. 

At the bus station, she showed the attendant the address to Ben Solo’s house and asked how far away it was. After a long suspicious look at her, no doubt due to her obviously young age, the man gave her directions to the other side of town. It seemed like a long walk, but she didn’t have much money and wasn’t sure if she would have to pay for a hotel tonight, so she decided that the money for the cab would be wasted.

She enjoyed walking, her eyes taking in every flashing light, every sign, every color and shape around her as she made her way across town. It took a long time to reach the part of town Ben Solo lived in, and was nearly nightfall when she came upon the building indicated in her folder. It wasn’t a tall building, only appearing to be 3 storeys, but it was sleek and modern. She walked to the door and found that she needed to be buzzed in. Several names were listed, and she found B. Solo, pressing the small white button next to his name.

It suddenly occurred to her, what if he wasn’t home? She had no way to tell him that she was coming here, maybe he had been expecting her? The official had said that when they had notified him of her turning sixteen, it had only been two days. Perhaps he didn’t know if she was coming.

However, her anxiety was short lived, when a crackle sounded at the door, the intercom producing a voice, muffled but deep.

“Yes?”

Rey took a deep breath, stepping closer to the metal speaker, her stomach flipping, her mouth suddenly dry.

“Uh, hi, Ben Solo?”

She winced, painfully aware of how high and young her voice sounded.

“Yes,” the voice repeated, this time sounding bored. “Who is it?”

She cleared her throat. “Rey. Uh, I’m Rey? Or, actually, Irene? I got your address after my birthday--”

She was cut off by the loud sound of a buzz and a click next to her. She reached for the door and pulled it open.

 

++

 

Inside the elevator, ‘B. Solo’ was listed at the top floor of the building. With a shaking hand, Rey reached forward and pressed the button, watching it light up as the doors closed softly. Rey, feeling suddenly flushed and clammy, fidgeted with the strap of her bag as the elevator began to rise upward, seeming to leave her stomach behind on the bottom floor. Rey felt her breathing stop as the elevator slowed, and a sharp  _ ding _ rang out into the silence. 

When the elevator door opened, revealing Ben’s apartment, Rey’s eyes widened as she looked into the space. A large, open apartment, sprawled in front of her. Sparsely decorated, her eyes roamed over the space quickly, frozen in place as the elevator doors threatened to close again. She stepped out before they closed, and turned to find him standing there, waiting.

Rey tried not to gasp, but she did. He was tall, his hair dark and long, covering some of his face. She felt strange, looking at him, nervous and excited and almost nauseous.

He spoke first.

“Irene,” he greeted in his low voice of his, making Rey shiver.

She cleared her throat, not trusting herself. “It’s Rey. Just Rey.”

His eyebrows creased a moment before he took a step closer to her, his hand coming up to fidget at the back of his neck. “Rey,” he repeated.

She nodded at him. “Ben?”

“Ah, yeah,” he answered in a daze before he seemed to come to himself. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting you. How did you get here?”

Rey stepped into the apartment a little further, her eyes taking in the details, the large windows, the high ceilings. He must have the whole top floor, Rey mused to herself.

“I walked,” Rey answered as she looked around, not trusting herself to look at him again. She had not been around boys that were older than her very much, and she felt nervous to be alone with him. She tried to ignore the immediate attraction she felt.

She heard a choking noise behind her, causing her to turn to him once more.

He’d pushed his hair off of his face, revealing, almost to Rey’s dismay, that he was very handsome indeed, his fingers gripping his hair in a fist at the top of his head.

“You  _ walked _ ?” He asked, his voice breaking in incredulity. “From where?”

Rey’s brow furrowed. No one ever cared how she got around in Jakku.

“From the bus station. I took the bus from Jakku last night to get here. I came here as soon as I could, the group home only let me stay one extra night. I had nowhere else to go and coming here was my only other option. I had enough money for the bus and then for a hotel here tonight.”

Ben looked like he had seen a ghost.

“Hotel?”

Rey nodded, confused by his behavior. “Yeah, of course. I didn’t know if you’d want me to stay here, I didn’t want to assume.”

She watched him close his eyes and sigh, and she thought she heard him mutter something about his mother under his breath.

“No, you can stay here, Ir-- Rey. You can stay here as long as you want.”

Rey felt herself flush, unused to being offered anything. “Oh, okay. Thank you.”

He let out a breath and let go of his hair, causing it to flop back into his face. He brushed it away and shifted backwards to enter the kitchen behind him. “Do you want to eat something? I have to make a phone call, but you are welcome to look around and have anything you want.”

Rey followed him into the kitchen. It was sparse and industrial, much like the rest of the apartment, but she spotted a box of cereal on the counter and made a beeline for it.

“Can I?” she asked, turning with the box in her hands. The look on his face was strange, far away but looking directly at her. She bit her lip shyly.

“Sure, Rey. Help yourself. I’ll be right back, okay?”

Rey nodded and began to munch on the cereal as he walked away. He left her alone for a while, disappearing into his bedroom, she assumed. She could hear muffled voices, sometimes loud, as if he was yelling, and other times she could hear nothing.

She ate until she was full, and he still hadn’t returned, so she began to wander the space of his apartment, taking in all the details, remarking that the decor did not look like a teenage boy lived here. Two austere looking sofas, arranged in front of a large flat screen tv, a heavy looking industrial dining table with only two chairs tucked sparsely in along one side, large, full length windows looked out onto the now dark city below. Rey had never been anywhere other than Jakku, and looking out at Chandrila felt like living a dream. Was this really her new home? What did it all mean?

She had tried not to freak out on her way here, about what her soulmate assignment would mean. She had no idea of what Ben Solo even looked like, so it had been hard for her to imagine what life would be like with him. But now, standing in his living room, she found she could barely believe how quickly her life was changing.

Jokes with the other kids at the home about a tall, dark, and handsome soulmate to sweep you off your feet and give you anything your heart desired had seemed so far fetched, it had been laughable. But, maybe it hadn’t.

Rey’s eyes moved around until they fell on a manila file folder like hers, thrown haphazardly onto long, glass coffee table. Except the one on Ben’s coffee table was much thicker, full to the brim with papers. Rey found herself drawn to it, with a glance down the hall to make sure Ben wasn’t coming back from his room, she opened it.

It was a folder like hers, her information tucked inside the inner flap, but the contents inside, her eyes widened in shock.

There was paper after paper of everything about Rey. Pictures from when she was first taken into the group home. A picture of her as a baby, being held by a woman, a woman she could only assume was her mother. Awards she’d received in school; recommendation letters to allow her to remain even after her sixteenth birthday.

Rey felt her breath begin to quicken as she looked at her entire life inside the file folder. How did he have this? How did he have all of this information about her when she had nothing? She had only been told his name two days ago, she had no idea who he even was, but it seemed like he knew everything.

“Rey?”

Rey jumped away from the file, a small shout coming from her mouth as she looked up at Ben, standing just to her left. She hadn’t heard him approach. Had he been calling her name?

She took several backwards steps away from him, her arms wrapping around herself defensively.

“What is that? How do you have all of that… stuff about me?”

She willed her voice not to shake, forced herself to look directly at him even though all she wanted to do was run.

“Rey,” he spoke softly, as if to a frightened animal. “Rey, let me explain.”

She took a slow shaky breath and nodded, but stepped further away from him.

“My mother works for the Soulmate Agency.”

Rey’s eyes widened, and her stomach dropped.

He eyed her carefully, taking a tentative step toward her. She stepped back and he sighed.

“I’ve known you were my soulmate for as long as I can remember. The day you were born, my mother knew that you had been matched to me.”

Rey felt herself begin to shake.

“Your parents died, and my mother made sure you were taken care off. The agency allowed her to make sure you were placed in a better group home than others, she did everything she could.”

_ There are certain circumstances in which we reveal or assign earlier than the designated age. _

Rey drew in another breath.

“That’s why they told me now, that’s why I was assigned before I turned eighteen.”

Ben took another step forward and Rey did not step back this time.

“Yes. My mother, of course, knows the law. She knew you’d be cast out of your group home, left to find your own way. She didn’t want that to happen, so she petitioned, tried everything. Your teachers helped, trying to get you into scholarship programs that would allow you to stay in school. The only thing the government allowed was for you to be notified about me, two years early.”

Rey felt her breath returning to normal. She looked at him, at his scared, earnest face. She drew in another deep breath before nodding.

“Why didn’t anyone send for me?”

Now, Ben sighed, his hands running through his hair again, and Rey was learning that this must be a nervous habit for him.

“Well, she did. But, you were already gone.”

“Oh.”

Ben chuckled derisively. “She didn’t tell me that she was sending someone to pick you up from the group home. They were supposed to let you stay until Chewie got there, but I guess something got mixed up somewhere. It’s probably better that way, I probably would have freaked out if I had known you were missing.”

Rey tried not to react to his last statement. “Chewie?”

Ben nodded. “Yeah, he’s a family friend, known my dad for years and years, from when he was in government foster care. My mom sent him to Jakku to get you from the home, but when he got there, he was told you had already left.”

“Was that who you were on the phone with just now? Your mother?”

He took another step closer to her. “Yeah. I called her and told her that you turned up on my doorstep. She was pretty relieved.”

Rey only nodded, her eyes falling back to the folder on the table.

“I’m sorry. This is probably so overwhelming for you, and it’s late.”

Rey looked around and nodded again; she did feel tired, and it suddenly felt like she couldn’t stay awake for another moment.

“Okay. I’ll show you your room.”

He walked back toward the hallway and she grabbed her bag from the floor as she passed.

“This is my room, if you need anything,” he said, pointing to a closed door. “And this is yours, for as long as you want, as long as you’d like to stay.”  

Rey stood, looking into the small room, a bed that looked very soft, with a small desk pushed up into the corner.  _ As long as you’d like to stay. _

“Where else am I going to go?” she asked, turning to look back at him, feeling small and hopeless, but still shaken by the contents of the folder. “You’re my soulmate, don’t you want me to stay?”

He looked at her for a long moment, his gaze intense and Rey had to swallow to settle herself under his gaze. She’d known him for forty-five minutes and she already felt herself being drawn in, without knowing a thing about him.

“Yes. But, the room is yours for as long as you want it to be yours.”

Her brow creased as she took in the meaning of his words. And finally, he cleared his throat and looked away, stepping back toward the closed door of his bedroom and giving her space.

“Goodnight, Rey. We can talk more in the morning.”

She nodded and raised her hand in farewell, watching him disappear behind his door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm blown away by the response this fic has gotten, I'm so so glad that everyone is enjoying my take on soulmates! I hope you enjoy the next installment :)

When Rey woke up the next morning, she felt strangely disoriented, the bed and surroundings strange and jarring for a moment, before the previous days’ events came back to her.

She stayed still, listening to the new noises around her. The whir of the forced heat, warming the room in the unseasonably cool May morning. It was a luxury, at least to Rey, to have heat, this late into spring, to so casually have it run on a cool morning. She wondered if they had electricity all the time here in Chandrila, or if they, too, were forced to ration it during peak times.

She heard birds, the songs of them unfamiliar to her, and she wondered what colors they were, what kind of birds lived here?

Next, she heard the rumble of her stomach and surmised that maybe it was time for her to get up. There was no clock in this room, only the light from the window to indicate it was sometime in the early morning. She crawled out of the bed, reaching for her bag to find clean clothes to change into before venturing quietly into the hallway.

Next to the closed door of Ben’s bedroom, another door stood slightly ajar, and Rey saw the tiled floor. With a quick glance down the hallway to check if Ben was anywhere to be seen, she hurried across the hall and into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

She wasn’t sure why she was nervous to see him. But she found, as she leaned back against the closed door and sighed in relief, that she wasn’t sure she could face him yet. Yesterday had been overwhelming. Coming here and meeting him had been almost too much to begin with, all deep-voiced and tall, handsome and quiet. But then she had found the folder.

He said he had known his whole life that she was his soulmate. She envied that, envied the fact that he never had to wonder. It seemed like he got updates about her, knew what she looked like, knew her hobbies and interests at school. She was struck at how very lopsided their relationship already was. He had this apartment, he had a career, he had a family. Rey had nothing. Rey could offer nothing. She was sixteen and had no money and could not complete her schooling. Her hungry stomach churned as she dressed, and she became more and more reluctant to leave the bathroom and encounter him.

Sighing, she looked in the mirror, turning on the tap and running cool water over her face. She took a deep breath, turned back to the door and stepped back out into the hall.

She left her dirty clothes on her bed, anxiety rising in her stomach as she made her way toward the open area of the apartment, stopping out of sight in the hallway, to see Ben sitting at the long dining table, eating cereal while reading something on a data pad. She tried not to notice how he wore a crisp button down shirt, his long hair combed neatly away from his face, she really tried not the notice the way his eyebrows were furrowed as he read from the screen in front of him. He chewed absently, his spoon hanging suspended over the bowl.

She shook her head and stepped forward, revealing herself finally, and his eyes moved to hers instantly.

“Hey,” he greeted, sounding a little surprised. Rey swallowed heavily and simply raised her hand to wave as she drew closer to the table. There was a lot of food spread across the table, and her eyes widened as she took in the excess in front of her.

He must have seen the look on her face as she stared, she heard the spoon hit the bottom of his bowl.

“I didn’t have a lot here, before you, uh, arrived,” he began and she looked up at him, at his worried face.

“I went out this morning and just, got a lot of stuff. I didn’t know what you liked,” his voice was soft and unsure as he finished.

There were several boxes of cereal, brands that Rey had never seen, bagels, several jugs of brightly colored juices, fruits that looked so strange and exotic to Rey, and next to Ben sat a jug of, to Rey’s shock, _milk_.

“Is that milk?” she asked, her voice high with surprise.

He glanced at the bottle next to him in confusion for a moment before he reached for it, sliding it across the table to her.

“Where did you get milk?” Rey asked as she picked up the bottle.

She looked at him expectantly, but he just seemed to stare at her, his eyes roving her face in a way that made her feel self conscious. Finally he spoke.

“Chandrila has farms, milk is very commonplace here. Did they not have any milk in Jakku?”

Rey shook her head. “We had it once or twice on Christmas, but that was it.” She looked down at the bottle again. “Is it true that it comes in chocolate, too?”

He looked at her again, this time with a deep fondness coloring his features. He stood from the table, disappearing into the kitchen. Rey, still clutching the bottle in her hands like treasure, looked down at the table and decided on a bagel, reaching her hand out for one as Ben re-entered the room. He was holding a brown bottle and an empty glass.

Her eyes widened.

He walked to stand next to her, and pointed at the empty chair, indicating she should sit. She lowered herself into the chair slowly, her eyes still fixed on the brown bottle in Ben’s hand.

He placed the glass down next to her bagel, and Rey watched in awe as he poured the brown, creamy liquid into the glass.

“It’s my favorite,” Ben said softly, his eyes darting to her face.

Rey placed the jug of milk on the table and reached for the glass, licking her lips in anticipation as her eyes moved to find Ben’s. She lifted the glass to her lips and when the sweetness hit her tongue, she could hardly contain the noise of surprise that came from her throat. She drank half the glass down, unable to get enough of the taste. When she finally pulled away to breathe, Ben was still looking at her, his eyes bright and a small smile playing at the edge of his full lips.

“I guess you liked it?” he asked and she nodded eagerly.

He smiled fully now, and Rey averted her eyes shyly, trying to ignore the swoop and twist of her stomach.

 

++

 

He sat at the table with her while she ate her bagel. (A similar situation occurred once more when he offered her cream cheese and she felt excited all over again.) When she was finished, she took note again of his attire.

“Do you have to work?” she asked, unsure of what his job entailed.

He glanced down at his watch and nodded. “Yes, but I am only going to work half of a day today, I’m going to go in after lunch.”

“Oh,” was all that Rey could muster in reply. He smiled gently at her.

“I thought you might have a lot of questions. I wanted to be with you to answer them. Uh,” he glanced down at his watch once more, this time a bit nervously. “We have to go and register at the agency, as well. You’ll be able to meet my mom.”

Rey did have questions, but now she could hardly remember any, the thought of meeting Ben’s mother overwhelming her brain. One thing did stand out, though.

“What do you mean, ‘register?’”

Ben stood, not looking at her as he cleared away her glass and plate and headed into the kitchen.

“When soulmate identities are released and both are of age, it’s the law that you have to go to your nearest agency and register as a pair, to sort of confirm that you’ve found each other. You have about a week to do it, or else they come looking for you.”

Rey stood and followed him, lingering at the door as he placed the dishes in the sink.

“Do people avoid their assignment?” Rey asked curiously, almost in disbelief. “I can’t imagine not wanting to meet your soulmate. I mean,” she hesitated, searching for the right word. “It’s your soulmate,” she finished, rather lamely.

Ben suddenly looked tense and uncomfortable, not meeting her gaze. He cleared his throat, his eyes rolling to the ceiling as his hand came up to the back of his neck.

“I guess people have their reasons.”

He sidestepped her, moving to clear the rest of the breakfast that he’d bought. “Okay, let’s get going. It’s a little bit of a drive to the agency.”

Rey watched him as his mood seemed to change. He seemed nervous, evasive, and wouldn’t look her in the eye. She watched him for a moment, wondering what had changed, what had caused him to pull into himself. Ultimately, she left him to his fidgeting, returning to her room to finish getting dressed for the day.

 

++

 

In the car, Rey remembered her questions more easily, and once she started asking, she couldn’t seem to stop.

And Ben, for his part, was eager to share with her what he knew.

“So, how did the whole soulmates thing happen?” Rey asked, after he’d answered a few questions about his parents.

“Oh, well,” he hesitated, looking over his shoulder as he merged into traffic. “Uh, my grandfather was actually the scientist who kind of ‘rediscovered’ the blood marker, after The Event. I guess it was something people stopped caring about, back in the old modern times. No one cared about being soulmates, so they stopped looking for it. My grandfather, Anakin, after the government reformed, he found some old textbooks that weren’t destroyed that talked about the soul mate marker in the blood, and he went to the government. They were fairly desperate for help in the effort to repopulate what was left on this side of the planet after the meteor hit.”

Rey listened, enraptured by the information, his low voice soothing as he spoke. This level of detail wasn’t taught in school.

“What happened after they found that out?”

“They had everyone that was left come in and have their blood taken. A lot of people were still left without soulmates, so many had people died. But a lot of the younger people were matched and then it went on from there. As the population grew, more people were able to be matched with a soulmate, and now it’s commonplace again.”

“Are there still people who don’t get matched?” Rey asked curiously. She wondered what that was like, growing up and thinking that you’d get a soulmate, and never have it happen.

“Yeah, I guess so. There are plenty of people that don’t get assigned for one reason or another. Maybe a baby died in childbirth, and their mate was left without a match to their blood. People die in car accidents waiting for their mate to come of age, things like that. My uncle, for instance, he has never had a soulmate.”

This took Rey by surprise.

“Really? Not ever?”

Ben shook his head as came to a stop before at a red traffic light. “No. Him and my mom were two of the very first children born to have their blood taken and added to the database. And, my mom works for the agency, she has for nearly thirty years, she’s checked and checked and there’s never been anyone that has matched my Uncle Luke.”

“That’s so sad,” Rey said, her heart breaking for Ben’s uncle. “Going through life alone.”

Ben shrugged as the light turned green. “He’s okay. There are support groups for people who don’t have soulmates, and sometimes those people pair off and develop relationships. Sometimes it works out in the end. And I doubt my uncle would want to be matched up with someone in an effort to reproduce children, anyway.”

Rey’s brow creased. “Why not?”

Ben snorted. “Well, for one thing, he’s gay.”

Rey blushed. “Oh.”

Ben laughed again. “Yeah. I guess things are meant to be even when they aren’t.”

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes before Rey asked her next question.

“What do you do for work? The file I got about you said you are a statistics analyst of some sort?”

He nodded, his hand rubbing his neck in that way of his. “I actually work for the government. Technically my mom does too, working for the agency, but I work more directly. It’s kind of, well, I think of it as my grandfather's legacy.”

“What do you mean?”

“I work in population statistics. I work in tracking trends and birth rates, based upon information from the soulmate agency. I see how the repopulation is progressing, how many soulmate pairs register each year, that kind of thing. My grandfather found something that was to save what was left of us, and now I work to monitor how successful his discovery was.”

Rey remembered something Ben had said earlier, in his apartment.

“Does the government really go after people who try to dodge their assignment? I know you said they come looking, but do they punish them? Force them to get married or whatever? What if your soulmate is a horrible person?”

Ben shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat. “They do, but it’s not like that. You’re matched to the person you’re meant to be with, Rey. It sounds horrible, but shitty people get matched to shitty people. Or at least they should be.” He added the last part, almost to himself.

Rey was about to ask what he meant, but he spoke again, and told her that they had arrived.

She looked up and saw a tall, sleek building, and followed as Ben got out of the car.

A lot of the surrounding countryside was bare, much less green than the more central part of Chandrila. Dull and bare, the landscape brought the building into stark relief, making it seem even larger than it actually was. Even so, Rey had never seen a building so tall.

They entered through a large glass door and headed toward a door inside which was listed as the ‘Soulmate Registration Office.’ Rey suddenly felt very nervous.

There was a tall blonde sitting behind the desk when they walked in, and she smiled warmly at Ben.

“Hey there, Solo. Let me just page your mom. She wanted to do the honors for you today.”

Rey watched as Ben blushed, and she could see the tips of his ears peeking out through his hair. Those, too, were red. She smiled to herself, warmed at the sight of him blushing, clearly embarrassed.  He nodded stiffly, as if unaffected, and looked over at Rey with a shrug.

Rey looked around and saw that most of the people in the office seemed to be looking at them. More and more people appeared the longer they waited, and Rey felt herself growing anxious, until finally, everyone scattered when an older woman floated into the room.

She was short, much shorter than Rey would have imagined Ben’s mother to be, but she seemed to command the room as she moved through it. She was lovely, with brown hair and a still youthful face, with, Rey noticed, the same brown eyes as Ben. She moved directly toward Rey, those brown eyes glowing and seeming to x-ray her where she stood.

“Irene,” she breathed as she came to a stop in front of Rey, saying her name like a prayer.

“Oh,” Rey said awkwardly, glancing at Ben quickly, “I’d prefer you to call me Rey. I never really cared for ‘Irene.’”

Rey saw a look of confusion cross over his mother’s features before it was gone, and a smile replaced it. “Of course, Rey. Please, call me Leia. I’m so glad to finally meet you.” She reached down and clasped Rey’s hands in hers. “I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time.”

Rey smiled at her, but glanced at Ben once again. She almost laughed at the pained expression on his face as he tried to look everywhere but at his mother.

“Mom, please.”

Leia let go of Rey’s hands and shot her son a dark look. “Oh, all right. Such a stick in the mud.”

She moved towards a row of desks and motioned them to follow her.

Leia sat down and pulled a data pad out from one of the drawers, as well as two needles and a small box that she connected to the side of the data pad. Rey and Ben sat in the two chairs opposite her.

“Okay, we need to fill out some information and then just a quick stick in your fingers to confirm your soulmate status.”

Rey suddenly felt nervous. What if there had been a mistake, all those years ago, and Rey really wasn’t Ben’s soulmate? She would have come all this way for nothing, she’d be homeless and alone, an outcast with no one by her side. Her stomach sank as she glanced at Ben,  wondering if she had foolishly getting her hopes up about getting matched with him as her soulmate.

She looked back and Leia and watched as she tapped something onto the data pad and then motioned for Ben to place his hand on the table. They both watched as she inserted the needle into the small box that she’d attached to the data pad and then, moving it toward Ben’s hand, they all heard a faint click as it pressed to the skin of his forefinger.He jumped a little at the contact.

Leia hummed in approval as she watched the screen, absently handing Ben a tissue for his bleeding finger. After a few more taps, Leia looked up at Rey and smiled at her, reaching out to take Rey’s hand in her own.

Rey noticed her hand trembling as she moved it forward, Leia quickly switching the needle out for a fresh one, then repeating the process. Rey, too, flinched when the needle touched her skin, but it was over in an instant and then Leia was handing her a tissue as well.

Leia tapped on data pad before setting it down and smiling at them.

“Okay! All confirmed and registered! The only thing left to input is a wedding date.”

Rey heard Ben react before her brain could even process what had just been said. She turned, her face blank and her mouth hanging open to look at Ben’s equally shocked face, his skin suddenly pale.

“Mom…”

Rey looked at Leia again, her brain trying desperately to catch up. Leia was looking at Ben with mild disapproval.

“Ben, you know the rules. You register and then you set a wedding date.”

Wedding date.

Ben made a noise in the back of his throat. “Yes, and there are circumstances in which those rules can be _adjusted_. Rey is sixteen.”

Leia’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“I guess you’re right.We can always pick one for after she turns eighteen.”

Rey, finally catching up with her brain, spoke.

“Why do we have to get married?”

Her voice was small, but insistent and she looked at Ben, not Leia as she posed her question. Something in her told her that Ben would give her an honest answer, more honest than his mother would.

When he looked at her, his eyes were soft, but she could still see he was tense by the way he held his mouth.

“Well, the purpose of the soulmate pairing is for children, birth rates, like I explained in the car. Marriages solidify the soulmate bond and make trends and births easier to track and chart lineage.” His voice grew softer. “Once you register, most pairs get married right away, but it’s not always required, sometimes there are circumstances…”

He trailed off. She kept hearing that word in regard to her situation.

“You’re not going to go and try dodging, are you, Ben?” Leia asked, and Rey saw Leia give her son a wry expression, a hint of a smile playing at her lips.

Ben cleared his throat and shook his head. Rey caught him roll his eyes.

Rey looked back and forth between them, the question in her head begging to be asked, but she waited. She wanted to ask him when they were alone.

Leia began typing on the data pad again, and the topic seemed to die.

“Okay, I put the wedding date as the day after Rey’s eighteenth birthday, is that okay with you?”

Rey merely shrugged as Ben nodded. “We can decide later,” he murmured to her, his long fingers moving to squeeze her little finger, a soft squeeze before he let go again and Rey felt that now familiar swoop in her belly.

 

++

 

After a long tour of the facility and an invitation for lunch on Saturday, Ben was practically dragging Rey out of the building.

“Are you that eager to get away from her?” Rey asked, almost amused by how miserable he seemed from his mother’s doting. He rolled his eyes at her as they made their way to his car.

“She’s been waiting for you since the day you were born,” Ben said, as they got into the car. “She’s been waiting to poke me in the finger and confirm my soulmate since the day she was alerted that there was a match. This is probably the happiest day of her life.”

Rey smiled softly at the thought. It was nice to think that they had been looking forward to knowing her, even though she hadn’t known they were there. Then she remembered. 

“What was she talking about before, when she joked about dodging?”

He froze as he was leaning to start the engine of the car.

“Oh. Uh.”

Rey felt warm, at the implication of his hesitation.

He looked at her, his eyes sad.

“Rey. I don’t…”

“What?”

He played with his keys in his hands. He cleared his throat.

“When I was sixteen, I tried to run away. I told my mom that I didn’t want a soulmate, I didn’t want any of it.” He looked up at her. “I was gone for a week before they found me.”

Her lungs felt like they couldn’t draw air. He had known everything about her, everything in her whole life because of Leia. And he had tried to run away.

“You didn’t want me?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh dear, it appears that the chapter count changed.

**Author's Note:**

>  _Please_ let me know what you think! This is my first stand alone story in a more modern AU setting, and I'm eager to hear everyone's feedback. Thank you to all of my thots who know who they are and encourage me and make me feel better when I'm feeling down or like crap. I love you all  <3


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